11 November 2012 9:18 PM

America is living without a thought for tomorrow

The Right could easily get carried away by four events in the last week: the fall in the USA stock market following President Obama's re-election, the failed attempt by the BBC and ITV to tarnish a senior Tory, the appointment of an old Etonian with business experience to be Archbishop of Canterbury and the resignation of the BBC director general, with the expectation of more heads rolling.

But, contrary to the old adage, a week is actually a short time in politics. Longer-term perspectives will over-ride any euphoria over these short-term events.

The American electorate are not going to wake up to their folly. They want more entitlements. That is what they were offered by the Democrats. That is what they voted for. That is what they will get.

They don't care if their national economy follows Europe into penury. They want what they want when they want it and they want it now.

The evidence from Greece, Italy and Spain on the consequences of living without thought for tomorrow is ignored.

They imagine that only rich people suffer when the stock market falls. They are fundamentally wrong.

Rich people move their money into other investments and into other parts of the world. It is the poor people who will suffer most when the goose stops laying golden eggs.

Rather than the free market economic engine of the USA driving Europe towards reality and hence towards prosperity, the USA is in danger of going down the same road as Socialist Europe. That is no cause for rejoicing anywhere other than in China and Russia.

An examination of Socialist states throughout the world, in the past and present, does not reveal prosperous working classes. Their faces are ground into the dirt by party bosses who live in luxury.

The USA electorate has another chance to come to its senses in four years' time. It will take it only if it can learn that money does not come from the money tree.

But President Obama will have to see that first, rather than blame a Republican Congress for everything that gets in the way of his Socialist Utopia.

The next four years in American politics are likely to be just as divisive and destructive as the last four. Neither the Right nor the Left, neither the rich nor the poor, will have anything to be happy about by the time of the next presidential election.

American politics are important to all European countries because the USA economy drives ours. Far from wanting the USA to be like us, we should want to emulate them. They know how to create and succeed. We know how to demand and fail.

When the BBC and a pipsqueak from ITV tried to damage Tory values by denigrating a senior Tory, especially one associated with Lady Thatcher, they spectacularly failed. The BBC was trying to divert attention from its institutional failure to combat child abuse in its own organisation. By trying to tar others with the same brush, they brought even more opprobrium on themselves. Recent sensationalist programmes on the BBC and ITV have totally failed to hit their target and the networks have only damaged themselves.

But, despite some understandable schadenfreude on the Right, there is really no case for happiness when major public broadcasters are shown to be fickle and partisan. Regulation of the press will become closer, with or without the encouragement of Lord Justice Leveson The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, replaces a ditherer who has led a divided Church into even greater divisions. A decisive lead from his successor, clearly a man of God rather than Mammon because of his previous experience in the oil industry, will be unlikely to improve the standing of the City.

But Vince Cable, the anti-Business Secretary, is unlikely to get an ally. Cleaning up the Augean stables is not the same thing as getting rid of the horses altogether.

But the Right will have no cause for rejoicing that old-Etonians now head both Church and State. This new Archbishop is his own man whereas Mr Cameron is anybody's, provided that 'anybody' does not have core Tory values.

The resignation of George Entwistle as Director General of the BBC was overdue. He saw his job primarily as Protector of the BBC, rather than the licence payers.

Public broadcasting is not a private fiefdom for Socialist apparatchiks. It has to be independent of political influence and fair in its presentation of ideas and principles.

Under his predecessor, the BBC lost sight of that. Getting shot of Mr Entwistle should not be the end of the matter. Some senior executives are likely to follow him into oblivion but surely, the great panjandrum, Lord Patten, should also be for the chop.

Yet even that should not bring a smile to the faces of the Right, who have never trusted him as 'one of us'. The BBC is institutionally Left and has been for a generation. This should not surprise anyone. Of course left wing people will work for the state, just as right wing people will tend to work in the independent sector.

The crucial issue is whether the BBC is fit for purpose at all as a taxpayer-funded organisation.

But would its abolition necessarily benefit the Right or the country at large? The evidence from American broadcasters is not encouraging. It is craven to the Right and largely un-watchable. Neither is the evidence from the USA press encouraging. It is largely the political plaything of the Left.

One way or another, the Right have nothing to crow about over the discomfiture of the Left this week. Rotten ideas, that don't work in practice, or do not have the support of a changing electorate, have to be replaced by better ones.

There is a great deal of work to do on both sides of the political divide on both sides of the Atlantic if we are to be saved from future catastrophe.

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DR ROBERT LEFEVER

Dr Robert Lefever established the very first addiction treatment centre in the UK that offered rehabilitation to eating disorder patients, as well as to those with alcohol or drug problems. He was also the first to treat compulsive gambling, nicotine addiction and workaholism.
He identified 'Compulsive Helping', when people do too much for others and too little for themselves, as an addictive behaviour and he pioneered its treatment.
He has worked with over 5,000 addicts and their families in the last 25 years and, until recently, ran a busy private medical practice in South Kensington.
He has written twenty six books on various aspects of depressive illness and addictive behaviour.
He now provides intensive private one-to-one care for individuals and their families.

He has written twenty six books on various aspects of depressive illness and addictive behaviour.

He now uses his considerable experience to provide intensive private one-to-one care for individuals and their families.